I hate to tell you this, and I hope you don’t pass this on. But I think I told you we had a meeting, national meeting, of the Humane Society at our herpetarium, when they met in Fort Worth. And the head of one of the societies asked me that… Read More
So I won’t have to go into it here. But it’s, I think it’s humane, and it’s effective and it’s quick. (snaps fingers) And if you’re gonna kill it, it’s probably quicker than what the steaks you had for dinner took for that cow to be killed anyway. And that… Read More
Excellent question. Well, first I think they do need to clean up anything that borders on inhumaneness, on an animal that is not behaving normally, and living in normal, reasonably natural, I’ll use, the natural life. And if they’re, they can’t do that, then we either need to change the… Read More
‘Cause if you do it in Fort Worth, they’ll want me to do that in Dallas.” You know, he later took on the Dallas Zoo. So he’s been in the business. He was in the business a long time. We did it. We did it. We kept those feeding things… Read More
The only question I had, which I thought was a very val valid question, how do you kill the mice?… Read More
Okay, AAZPA. Unfortunately, I really can’t answer that. I don’t have enough current knowledge. Read More
Visitor attitudes have been 1,000% improved by education with TV, or with our zoos and aquariums, greatly. People know things today that they, that they never could have known before. So I think our public is much, is very well educated on zoology and on animal life. I don’t think… Read More
What issues would you like to see zoos address in the future?… Read More
And I think that the key to zoos surviving in whatever mode they’re gonna survive in should encompass those qualities, which you looked for when you did your accreditation. Read More
What changes have you seen during your years in the zoo field regarding visitor attitudes and administration at the national level?… Read More
Well, in my zoo lifetime, I never really had to confront that problem of people that wanted to get rid of zoos. Now, I’d have to say in some cases I’ve seen a lot of zoos that should be done away with, quite frankly. And so I would have to… Read More
Could you give us your thoughts on how best to deal with these types of groups?… Read More
Well, the other was ISS, I know he was behind that. But he’s a genius. He really is, he’s a genius. And he has done more for zoos, I think, than any other single individual. Marlon did his thing. Never met Dr. Hornaday. All I really know about him at… Read More
I think they need to look in their backyard. And I think every zoo should do this large, small, what have you. And there are opportunities out there for… Well, for saving or retarding the inexorable march of development, of industrial development, of pollution, of all those terrible things. And… Read More
We’ve used so many pounds of pesticides and fertilizers that’s gone down into the water table and all. Really, our wildlife is I think in a terrible state. And I don’t think it’s gonna get any better. It will in pockets, but, I think it’s in trouble, I think it’s… Read More
Sure, right now, herpetology has taken, or not herpetology, herpaculture has taken a strange direction where they’ve done great at breeding reptiles, that is a plus. I think the herpetologists may have done better at raising their animals than the aviculturists, except for some common species, and then some mammals. Read More
Then somebody else gets a reticulated python without the retics, or something, then that’s becomes the fad. We’ve had our fads in zoos, really. But this is one in herpeculture. It is not really herpetological. The genetics are not, they’re not really being studied. It’s trial and error. There are… Read More
But in your opinion, what can a small, or medium sized municipal zoo do today to get involved in wildlife conservation nationally or internationally?… Read More
I never got an animal in my zoo that I didn’t know everything that was possible to know about that animal based on the literature available, and based on watching it. Now, you are, and you have had a big love of herpetology. Yes. Read More
Compared to when I started? Well. Many zoo directors do not have a good training in the arts, and sciences, and even in zoology. Somehow, at least the ones I’ve spoken to don’t demonstrate that to me. And I, maybe they just, maybe I’m missing it. Maybe I’ve talked to… Read More